Consider Lyon

Thank you Becky! My sister and I will be staying in Lyon for a week (first time visitors!) in late April/May so we are glad to hear it is relatively unaffected so far. We've heard that it's a simply lovely city, slightly off the beaten path.

Becky, thank you. I am going the end of April into early May (Hilarie, have a great time) and would love to know more about the city. Whereabouts did you stay, any restaurants you would recommend? Also, did you buy one of the passes which includes transportation and museums?

To travel between Paris and Lyon, use Trenitalia trains to reduce your risk of strike disruptions. There are 5/day.

We stayed in a lovely Airbnb right along the Saone River. It was an easy walk to the Cordeliers Metro stop. Some of our favorite restaurants were La Scene Brasserie (easy walk from out apartment), Bouchon Les Lyonnaise, a classic bouchon- very busy, but great service and food (in the old part of the city) and Le Bouchon des Artistes (in the 3rd Arr near Les Halles food market). We also had a dinner at Brasserie Georges (near the Perrache train station). It is a very large historic brasserie. We were shocked how full it was, even on a weekday. Les Halles food market is full of food stores, stalls and restaurants. We visited several times.
We found Lyon Part Dieu train station much easier to navigate than Lyon Perrache train station.

We are going back to Lyon in May - fell in love with the place. We are staying where we stayed before, Hotel des Celestines. Easy access to everything. Make sure to do some tour that takes you through the Traboules.

Part Dieu is modern and well signposted, but it is an extremely busy station. The concourse can be so crowded that it affects the speed at which you can walk. I also had a surprising experience (2017) involving a last-minute track change. When we reached the bottom of the escalator to the platform we thought we needed, we found an SNCF employee there, redirecting us. What was surprising was that she told us to "run", which wasn't necessary, because we had over 10 minutes before departure time. That was odd. And you really couldn't have run through the station at that point, because it was mobbed.

Acraven, even busier than Gare du Nord? That is my least favorite station in Paris. Always aggressive/pushy behavior.

Loved our 5 nights in Lyon last April.

One of the best splurge meals on the trip was at the famed La Mère Brazier.

Loved Vieux Lyon. Best crepe of our 3 weeks in France was in that part of town (La table brestoise) and Boulangerie du Palais was a delight there too.

We completely enjoyed our stay in Lyon.

I haven't been to Gare du Nord, I don't think. But I've been in a lot of European rail stations, and Part-Dieu impressed me with its crowds.

I liked Lyon very much and hope to return.

Love Lyon! Part Dieu is not as insane as Gare du Nord. That’s always been a nightmare for me.

This is my last day in Lyon and I’m already sad to leave.